Great article and furthers the point as the a future direction of Air warfare can take. Initially man/unmanned pairing and as AI advances fleets of Valkyrie like airframes could overwhelm defenses while keeping pilots out of the fray.
I like the statistics they use
Each F-35 had a projected service life of 8,000h at $44,000 per flight hour in fiscal year 2018, dropping to $34,000 by FY2024. Thus the lifetime cost for purchasing and operating an F-35A is between $352 million (if it meets cost reduction goals) and $432 million. In contrast, Kratos has offered to sell the Valkyrie for $2 million per aircraft in lots of 100. And since it is autonomous, each Valkyrie does not require flight hours every month to keep pilots proficient.
Besides, this does not include the tremendous savings the autonomous Valkyrie gains from eliminating the personnel costs associated with the pilot, much of the maintenance team and the airfield. Nor does it include the personnel training pipeline costs for these specialities – or their retirement and healthcare costs.
The USA could probably buy well over 300 X-58As for the fully loaded cost of one F-35. In short, four Valkyries can deliver the same payload to over twice the range for about one-fortieth of the lifetime costs of an F-35A. And because of their range, Valkyries can strike many targets the F-35 simply cannot reach.
more on low cost Attritable UAVs
Aircraft developers believe these five pieces of technology need to be improved to make attritable aircraft work.
www.flightglobal.com
